Page:Poems Douglas.djvu/127

"List to me, boy: not where,
 Formal and proud,
Breathing the pent-up air—
 House-dwellers crowd
Was my young life confin'd,
 Sped childhood's hours!
No; all was free as wind,
 Gay as the flowers.

"In glen and valley's heart,
 By the bright floods,
From the world's busy mart
 Far in the woods,
Dwelt I with wandering ones—
 Glad eyed and dark,
Agile as forest fawns,
 Gay as the lark.

"The ceiling above us there
 Arched not saloons;
The tapestries round us were
 Leafy festoons.
The carpets on which we trod
 Pampered not pride;
It was the enamell'd sod,
 Verdant and wide.

"While the dreams hovered still
 O'er waking flowers,
To range the wild wood and hill
 Freely was ours;